Moldplus Power Demo!

(METRIC)

NOTE: This document is only meant for Resellers and is not to be used as a learning tool. The Applications guide is designed to serve the purpose of learning Moldplus.
In order to show the power of Moldplus and the new features (especially Electrode Maker), this guide should walk you through a quick 10 minute demo or less!!! Please follow the directions as indicated if you are not familiar with all the modules. Make sure you have done the proper Moldplus installation. The files referred to here can be found in the MCAM8\MILL\MC8\Moldplus_Examples_MM folder. Please NOTE THAT THE FILES REFERENCED HERE ARE UPDATED MC8 files.

SECTION 1 Draft Angle Analysis

Moldplus offers very powerful tools for analyzing parts for undercut surfaces, etc. With 1 click of the mouse, you should be able to demonstrate that Moldplus will analyze the part and automatically trim the undercut surfaces and place them in different colors and levels. You can explain that this feature alone will help them from machining prototypes then realizing that the mold cannot be pulled apart because there are undercut surfaces. To do this: Step 1: Load the door_mm.mc8 file. Explanation: You can show this Door part in the Top view and mention that it is not easy to determine if there are undercut surfaces or not. Step 2: Launch Moldplus. (ALT-C, type or select Moldplus.dll from the list) Step 3: Click on Draft Angle, Settings, the following Window will be displayed. Make sure you set the values as indicated below (change the levels for Yellow and Red to the indicated)

Explanation: You can explain the features here. The green +3 degrees is the normal analysis angle and that any surface at 3 degrees or above will get marked as green. The In Between will mark the surfaces in between 0 degrees and 3 degrees as Yellow. These surfaces can either be machined with the Undercut surfaces or the surfaces at 3 degrees or above. The level is set to 3 for the Yellow surfaces. All the undercut surfaces will be marked to Red, trimmed and placed in Level 5. Step 4: Click on OK, from the main Draft Angle menu, verify that the Cplane is set to Top and click on Do It. The following will be the result.

Step 5: Zoom into this corner and show the results. You can explain that the surfaces are trimmed and marked according to the settings.

Step 6: To show that they are trimmed and moved to different levels, you can click on ALT-Z to bring up the Mastercam Level Manager. Disable Level 2 (the surface geometry level). Click OK. You will only notice that the In between and Undercut surfaces are displayed. You can explain that the other geometry is just BAD DESIGN!!! Explanation: You can then explain that the user has 2 options. The user can (1) decide to machine the surfaces as undercut surfaces and use them in the mold as sliders OR (2) rotate the part to a desired angle to eliminate the undercuts. If you wish to show the rotate option, do this: Step 7: Enable Level 2 again. Click on Undo/Redo button. This will restore the original geometry so that the user can either analyze using a different angle or rotate and analyze again. To rotate, we first need to set the Cplane to Side. Click on Cplane and set it to Side. Then, click on Xform, Rotate, All, Surfaces, Done. For point of rotation, click

on the Blue point found on the right side lower corner. And enter the following angle of 11.5 degrees in the prompt for the angle.

Click on OK. The part will be rotated by 11.5 degrees. Step 8: Now, set the Cplane to Top again and launch Moldplus, Draft Angle and Do It. You will notice that the corner where you found the undercut surfaces is completely gone! This completes the Draft Angle Analysis Demo.

SECTION 2 Creating Parting Lines, 3D Part Edges and 2D Part Edges.

Moldplus allows the quick creation of Parting Lines, 3D part edges and 2d projected part edges. All these are helpful to complete a mold design (for example, creating Run-offs to mold edges). Step 1: Load the partfile door_mm.mc8 again Step 2: Launch Moldplus, click on Parting, Partlines, make sure the Cplane is set to Top. Verify the direction, if the arrow is pointing downwards, click on CP Norm to set the direction normal to the construction plane. The angle as default is set to 3 degees. Click on Do All. You will notice that the parting lines are created at all the regions at 3 degrees. This is similar to the Draft Angle Analysis, except that it is better to do the Draft Angle Analysis if you plan to also trim the surfaces. You can create more draft angles at other angles too if you so desire.

Step 3: Click on Undo All to get rid of all the Parting lines for the next step.

You can now show how easy it is to create the 3D parting edges of molds. This is very useful where you need these edges to create run-offs to the mold edges. Instead of creating all the mold edges of all the surfaces, this is a huge time saver. Step 4: Click on Backup till you get to the Moldplus Main Menu. From there, click on Edges, 3D Edges and then verify the Settings. The default settings are usually good. You can explain that Splines will be created on all the edges. Click on Part Edges. You will notice that all the exterior and interior parting edges are created in 1 click!

Step 5: You can also explain that this feature will quickly tell you if there are inconsistencies/ gaps between surfaces. For example, zooming in on the top right corner, shows the edges created where a gap exists. Useful to determine the cleanliness of the surface model! Zoom into this section and explain the edges here.

The exterior edges can be used to create the run-off surfaces easily using the Moldplus Partsurf menu. You can also create 2D projected curves for easy 2D machining or quick contouring or pocketing to remove excess material on the exterior or interior areas before surface machining. Step 6: From the Edges menu, click on 2D Project, Settings, explain that the projected edges can automatically be created as Arcs and lines rather than splines. Make sure the Settings page is as follows:

Step 7: Click on OK. Change the Mastercam Color to 1 (Dark Blue) and click on Part Edges. You will notice the following result.

All the dark blue curves are lines and arcs representing the 2D projected curves for the part. Using this quick contouring or pocketing can be done, or whatever else the user wishes to do. Step 8: Click on Undo to remove the curves once you have showed them. The 3D curves will be used for the next section. This completes the creation of the parting lines, 3D edges and 2D projected edges. You can also do those for single surfaces or get all the edges of all the surfaces if desired.

SECTION 3 Creation of Parting Surfaces Manual and Automatic

This section will cover the creation of Parting surfaces / runoffs to Mold edges using the manual method or the automatic methods. Step 1: Using the same door_mm.mc8 file that contains the 3D part edges created in the previous section, we will create the mold edges for just 1 side. From the Moldplus main menu, click on Parting, Partsurf, click on Mold edge and click on the lower left edge of the mold. You are immediately presented with the following menu.

Select this edge

Step 2: If you use the default selection of Edgesurf, then the edge closest to where you pick will have a surface extension created to the indicated edge. If you use the Surf+Edge option, you can click on the surface and then indicate the edge to create from. Click on Surf + Edge, and zoom into the part in this area and click on the edge indicated. The following will be the result.

Pick this surface

Pick this edge

Resultant surface

You can go about creating each individually OR, use the Chain option to make life easier. Step 3: Undo the surface just created. Click on Chain Curv, Chain Partial, zoom into the following corner and click on this edge shown in the left diagram for the chain start position. Next, zoom out and click the edge here to indicate the chain end position. Chain Start Position Chain End Position

The following will be the result of the parting surfaces created to the mold edge.

We can now move on to show how easy it is to create the parting surface edges at an angle. You can either show the same side that was created to show the angular edge creation. Step 4: Activate Level 5. On the right corner, there is a plane created with a 15 degree Z inclination. Click on Cplane from the secondary menu and using the Entity option, select the X axis and Y axis as indicated. The resultant plane will be displayed as below. Click on Save. This will set the new Construction plane.

Step 5: Change the color to Blue (9). Repeat Step 3 by chaining the same section that was used. The following will be the result. The parting surfaces will be created at the 15 degree angle. Notice the Red surfaces are perpendicular to the Top plane and the Blue surfaces are at the angle. Isometric View Side View

This shows how easy it is to create the edges of the mold. You can do the other sides if you wish and then use the corner to fill them OR move on to creating the Auto Partsurf instead that does the whole process in a few clicks! Step 6: Load the door_mm.mc8 file again so that it is clean of all the parting edges and surfaces created in the last sections. Step 7: Click on Parting, Partsurf, Auto, then click on Settings and leave the settings at default. As a default, the 3D edges will automatically get created, giving the user the flexibility to manually fix or create parting surfaces at a later stage. Step 8: Click on Stock Lim and click on any edge of the mold boundary. As a default, chain is selected. You can explain that the mold edges are not limited to rectangular boundaries and that you can use any closed contour (notice that this contour has fillets on the corners). Once the boundary is chained, you then have 2 options to create the parting surfaces.

Step 9: Click on Create 1, the parting surfaces are created automatically for the part. You will automatically prompted with a window stating that if Create1 didnt create the surfaces correctly, Undo and use the Create2 option. These are 2 separate algorithms, therefore the user has 2 possibilities to create the parting surfaces. In this case, it is a good result. You can shade it and show it if you like. This is it!!! 1 click, you are done!

This completes this section. There will be cases where the Auto Part surf does not function well. In those cases, simply use the manual parting surface method. Using a combination in the end will give the user the best of both worlds! Big time savings!

SECTION 4 Solid Separation

Solid Separation to separate core and cavity entities is a very powerful tool of Moldplus and would mean night and day for anyone having to separate core and cavity entities manually. Step 1: Load the case_mm.mc8 file. You can click on the Statistic button and show that there are 478 trimmed surfaces that need to be separated. Step 2: Launch Moldplus, click on SolidSep and click on Settings and make sure the settings are set as below:
Surface model with 478 surfaces

Explanation: You can explain the Settings a bit and mention that we dont consider which is Core and which is Cavity since end users orient the part in different ways. Therefore, the upper

surfaces CP Z+ will be pulled apart by the specified Z distance for the CP Z+ (250 mm in this case) and moved to Level 2 and changed to color green (10). The CP Z- surfaces will stay in the current location and have its properties changed to Level 3 and color 9. The Vertical surfaces, straddle surfaces (any surface that straddles/ goes beyond the parting line) and unknown surfaces will be marked in the specified colors, moved to level 4 and moved by a Z distance of the undecided surfaces by 125 mm. The rest of the setting can be left alone. You can explain that the Pre split Straddle surfaces will split all the straddle surfaces at the parting line before separation. Click on Done when explaining the settings. Step 3: Click on Do It. You are prompted with the dialog that gives the user a warning that the properties of the surfaces will be changed. This is a friendly warning! Click on OK. The separation takes place within a few seconds and the following will the presented.

You can explain that the surfaces are now split and displayed according to the settings. Notice that the vertical surfaces are displayed in the middle (Z of 125mm). You can easily move all the vertical surfaces to the Top or Bottom using the Move Undef. Menu. Step 4: Click on Move Undef. The default selection will be the Vertical surfaces and the location is set to Bottom. Click on To Top. Step 5: Click on MultiSel, All Surfaces, you will notice that all surfaces get selected, do not worry. Only the Yellow / vertical surfaces will be affected. Click on Done. All the vertical surfaces will be moved to the top. You are done. Click on Done from this menu. Click on Open/Close to return all the surfaces to the original Z heights. You are done with the separation part.

Now, you can show easy it is to create the mold edges to the part. There is a pre-created level that has the mold edges created (Level 10) Step 6: Click on ALT-Z, then click on Levels used, turn off Level 3 and enable Level 10. You should see the following:

Step 7: Click on Parting, Partsurf, Auto, Stock Lim and chain the stock boundary shown. Step 8: Click on Create2 (not Create1). This will create the mold edges extensions. If you used Create1, there is a possibility that the edges have one or 2 extra ones. Simply Undo and use Create2. The following should be the result.

You can complete the separation and the parting surfaces creation in this manner. In a matter of minutes, you have demonstrated some powerful time saving tools that could help pay for the package in 1 click!

SECTION 5 Powerful Trimming Functionality

This section will cover the powerful trimming features of Moldplus. Within a few minutes, you should be able to demonstrate the power of Moldplus trimming tools for Mastercam. ZONE SPLIT Step 1: Load the case_mm.mc8 file. Explanation: You can explain that we will assume that this is a large mold and we need to split this model into 3 different sections from the side view. Using Moldplus you can easily split the surface model into 3 separate zones and change the properties such as colors and levels. Step 2: Switch the model to the Side View and using ALT-Z, activate Level 11 which is also names the Zone Split boundary. You should now see this.

Step 3: Launch Moldplus, Cut_and_Slice, Zone Split, click on Settings and make sure the Settings are set as below. You can explain that the trimmed/second zone will be moved to Level 2 and changed to color Red. The other surfaces/first zone will be left with the original colors and on the original level (setting 0). Click on OK after verifying this.

Step 4: From the Zone Split menu, click on Do It. You are prompted for the contour entities. These are the dividing curves. In the wireframe, these are the 2 blue line segments. The last curve selected will have a green arrow displayed. Click on each of these and then click on Done.

Select dividing curves (blue line segments)

Step 5: You are now prompted for the First Zone. This is the Zone that you want to leave in the original color or level. Click above the first dividing line (you can also click below the last dividing line).

Select here for First Zone

The surfaces are trimmed and the result is displayed as follows. The right image shows the result with Level 2 turned off.

Explanation: You can use the above function to also make quick inserts. All you have to do is define a contour and chain the contour as the contour and use the Zone Split or Zone Delete function to get rid of the contour. The Door_mm.mc8 is a good example to demonstrate the insert creation. Mold-makers look for tools such as these to quickly trim out a certain area of the mold to repair or modify. PLANE TRIM and ZONE DELETE Step 1: Load the door_mm.mc8 file. Switch to the Top View. We will first show easy it is to use the Plane Trimming feature.

Step 2: Launch Moldplus, Cut_and_Slice, Plane Trim. Click on Direction. Click on Side(X) to select the Side plane to base the trimming to be normal to. Click on Esc key to return to the Plane Trim menu.

Step 3: Click on All Surfs. You are now prompted to indicate a point of reference to use for trimming all the surfaces. Click on a location as shown. You dont need to pick a certain point. Simply sketch a point. You will be prompted to indicate the Side to keep. Click on the left side for the side to keep.

Point selected indicated by red point. Select this side to keep.

The following will be the result of the plane trimming.

You can perform other plane trimming operations in this manner. We will now quickly demonstrate how the Zone Delete function works. Step 4: Activate Level 8. You will see a blue contour to represent the boundaries for either a Zone Split or Zone delete operation. We will now use this for a Zone Delete operation.

Step 5: From the Cut_and_Slice menu, click on Zone Delete. You are prompted for the contour to use for the chaining boundary. Click anywhere on the Blue contour. It will automatically be chained. Click on Done from the Chain selection menu. You are prompted for the Side to Keep. Click outside the contour. The surfaces will be trimmed and all interior surfaces deleted! Select outside the blue contour. Result of Zone Delete.

The Zone Delete and Zone Split are great tools for trimming and making of quick inserts.
This concludes the trimming functionality demonstration of Moldplus. You can also show the Zig Zag function if preferred, but the above options will give the user a very good idea of the power of Moldplus trimming.

SECTION 6 Untrimming Surfaces

Moldplus offers powerful untrimming tools that allow the closure of open and closed gaps in trimmed surfaces. This is a huge time savings tool that allows the user to either fill the hole or un-trim the hole. For machining purposes and toolpath calculation, untrimming the surfaces to the specified boundaries is more important for faster toolpath calculation. The user is given the option to do both. Step 1: Load the O_ELEC_1.MC8 file. We will demonstrate how easy it is to fill open gaps, closed holes and create surface offsets in multiple directions. You can first demonstrate the filling of open gaps. Zoom into this corner.

Step 2: Launch Moldplus, ElectrodeMKR, Close Trims. The first option on the menu is Open Gap. Click on it. You will be prompted to select a new surface to fill the gap or split the loop for. The options on the menu will be Fill Gap, Remove Gap or Both Options. The default should be Fill Gap. This is good for demonstrating the Untrim option. Step 3: Shade surfaces for a better display (ALT-S). Click on the surface indicated first. Then click on the Points UV Point 1 and then UV Point 2. You can click anywhere close to the corner. The corner will automatically get selected as long as you are close to the corner. You do not have to worry about being precisely on the corner.
2. Select the surface edges indicated by UV Point 1 and 2 as indicated to define the fill boundary. 1. Select this surface

The above fill surface will be the result of the Open Gap un-trimming. Step 4: You can also do the entire set of open edges by clicking the starting and ending edges. Reselect the surface and then specify the edges for filling.
Select edge 2 here. Select edge 1 here.

Explanation: Within 2 clicks you have shown how easy it is to fill open gaps. You can also explain that for machining purposes, you might want to remove the gaps by making it all into 1 single surface rather than a surface with several fills. Step 5: You can demonstrate the ease of using the Closed Holes option to remove all the trimming of closed holes. Look at the surface to the right. From the Close Trims menu, click on Closed Hole. The default setting should be Fill Holes. Click on any Hole on the trimmed surface. The hole will immediately get covered.

Click on any hole. The hole is filled.

Step 6: Now click anywhere outside the surface. All the closed holes are filled with 1 click. The closed hole can be any form or shape.

Click outside surface to fill all holes

The above demonstrates the power of filling open gaps and closed holes. We will now move on to demonstrate the Edge Offset creation feature. With one click, you can create edge offsets in all directions, tangential to the surface curvature and by a specified distance. You can explain that this is great for electrode machining or in cases where you need to generate toolpaths that start at a tangential distance away from the real surface to machine. Step 7: Load the O_ELEC_1.MC8 file again without saving the changes you made to it. Zoom into the surface that has all the open gaps. This is a classic example where you need to start the tool away from the surface by creating offset surfaces. Step 8: Launch Moldplus, ElectrodeMKR, Close Trims, click on Edge Offset, verify that the Offset val. is set to 0.8 mm. Simply click on the surface. The following will be the result. Offset surfaces are created tangential to the surface in all directions by the specified distance.

Offset surfaces created in all directions (indicated by Red color).

Now that we have demonstrated the power of Electrode untrimming, we can show how easy it is to fill a cavity with a few clicks to prepare for machining. Step 9: Load the O_ELEC_3.MC8 file. This cavity has multiple surfaces that have a combination of open gaps, closed holes and gaps between the surfaces. The next feature, Merge Brother will show how easy it is to fill or remove the gaps in 1 click for the surfaces.

Step 10: From the Close Trims menu, click on Merge Broth. You can leave the default settings to Fill Gaps. Click on these 2 surfaces to create surface fills for.

Click on these 2 surfaces with the Fill Gaps option.

This is not ideal for machining purposes. Therefore we will use the other option, the Remove Gap option to untrim the rest of the surfaces. Step 11: Click on Remove Gap and then click on the rest of the surfaces in any order that you find easy. With a matter of few clicks (should be exactly 9 surfaces), the whole model should be untrimmed. Showing the interior of the surface model by rotating it, you can display the fills and the untrimmed surfaces.

Using the Remove Gap option, you can easily fill the rest of the surface model!

This concludes the demonstration of the Surface Untrimming options. This module is a HUGE time saver for surface modelers.

SECTION 7 Electrode Maker

This section will cover Moldplus Electrode Maker. There is far more automation and user control built in to isolating electrodes and generating textual and visual HTML reports in this

version. The steps outlined will allow you to demonstrate Electrode Maker in a matter of few minutes without having to explain all the details of the Settings and the process. Step 1: Load the O_ELEC_4.MC8. You can explain that we will isolate a few electrodes out of this model.

Step 2: Launch Moldplus, ElectrodeMKR, click on Job Setup. Explantion: You can explain that the first tab (Files/Location) is to select the Data paths for saving the identified electrodes to, the database where the standard electrodes are saved to and the electrode holder directory. MAKE SURE THAT THE MOLDPLUS_JOB_123 FOLDER IS EMPTY. We will use this directory as the Job Directory for the demonstration. (A quick indicator for this is whether the View JobList button is active or not. If it is active, it means the directory is NOT empty. If it is grayed out, it means that there is no JobList.txt file and that it is probably empty. If you fail to empty this folder, then you might have different results from the demonstration.

Step 3: Click on the Options Tab. Explanation: You can explain that this Tab controls most of the electrode maker parameters for auto centering the inserted electrode so that the XY values are rounded off for easy burn hole

location, set the XY and Z offsets for the identified electrode, automatically manage the levels and hiding of the electrodes, perform the collision test so that the holder never hits the part, etc. You dont need to explain all the options here, but you can pass the cursor over 1 or 2 items and let the tooltips do the explanation.

Step 4: Click on the Machine Settings tab. Explanation: You can explain that you can set up several machines for manufacturing electrodes and each machine can have upto 4 different operations to be performed on the electrodes. Choose the following machine from the list. If this does not exist on your system, create the following machine and operations.

Once you have quickly explained the 3 tabs for the Job Setup, (most of the default settings are fine), you can move on to inserting and identifying electrodes. Click on OK to close the Job Settings dialog. Step 5: Click on Auto Insert. The system prepares the part for collision testing. We will now identify a rib to insert an electrode for. By clicking on any surface that is related to the first rib displayed, the whole rib is selected and the electrode list is immediately presented for insertion. Please note that this automatic selection, without entering the Isol Geom menu will allow you to select 1 set of reference geometry immediately. To select more than 1 set of reference geometries, you need to click on Isol Geom, select the geometry and then click on Done to get the Electrode Insert menu. Make sure you click on one of the vertical surfaces for electrode reference geometry selection. If the whole model gets selected, simply close the Electrode List window, click on Undo and start over.

Select this face for the rib.

Selection result. 1 click, whole rib is selected

As soon as the Rib is selected, the Electrode List is presented. The Standard electrodes found in the database are displayed in the order of minimum volume of stock needed to manufacture this electrode. If a standard is not found in the database, there will be nothing listed. You can explain that the electrode maker always recommends the smallest stock size for manufacturing the electrodes and lists them in the order of using the minimal amount of stock needed.

In the above case, for the Rib, there are 4 standard electrodes that can be used. Notice the volume percentage indicates the minimal stock size. Step 6: Select the first standard, the FC9_124_70. Highlight and click on OK. The electrode is inserted. You can show the different views of Mastercam to indicate that the electrode is centered to the reference geometry, it clears the part with the holder. Isometric View Top View Front View

You are now presented with a new menu that limits you to Trim2Elec, MoveElec, Save or Undo. Step 7: Click on Save to show the next dialog and the process. The following dialog is presented with a name automatically started for the electrode called ELECT_1. It also prompts to save to Level 20. The machine chosen is what you had chosen in the Job Setup.

Step 8: Click on OK. The electrode and reference geometry will be saved to the external file and to Level 20 and 21 of the main part file and then hidden. The following message will be presented and the geometry will be presented as follows:

You have done the first electrode! You are immediately presented with the Auto Insert Electrode menu again. This time, you can do an angular electrode. To do this make sure of the following. Make sure the Angle Fit is set to Y in the Auto Insert Menu.

Step 9: Click on the following surface to select the reference geometry. The result of the selection will be as follows:

Select this surface.

Selection result. Reference geometry selected

Step 10: The Electrode List is immediately presented again.

Please note that the list may not display all the electrodes displayed here. But the first 3 are all that matter. Step 11: Select the first electrode from the list FC10_23_60. Highlight and click on OK. The following electrode will be inserted and at an angle for optimal stock usage. Isometric View Top View Side View

Notice from the Top View, the optimal angle that the electrode is rotated to for minimal stock usage. Step 12: Click on Save from the menu. The electrode will be saved to Level 22 and into the external file. We will now do the isolation of a rib and create a new non-standard electrode to demonstrate the ease of this function. Step 13: Click on the vertical surface of the succeeding Rib (from the first rib already done), to select the geometry from the menu. The following should be the result.

Second rib selected rd to make 3 electrode by clicking on vertical surface

Step 14: When the Electrode List is displayed, click on

Explanation: The following dialog screen is displayed. Explain that the minimal stock dimensions are displayed, along with the recommended stock sizes for the new standard. The user can define whether the electrode is Copper or Graphite, specify whether it is Flat, Square or Round, the minimal electrode length is calculated based on the set parameters in the Job Setup page. When you say, Add it to Standards, it will name the electrode with the sizes and using the naming for FC for Flat Copper, followed by the thickness, width and height.

Set the parameters as define above. The only change made to the default display of the dialog was the minimal height was changed to 71mm instead of the recommended 70. Step 16: Click on OK. Moldplus will prompt you to choose a holder. Select the following holder from this dialog. Notice that using the Mastercam File Get menu, you can preview the electrode holder before attaching it to the electrode.

Step 17: Select the 70X70X30MM.MC8 file for the electrode holder. Click on Open. The electrode is attached to the new standard we just created and inserted into the geometry. The following will be the result.

Now, we will demonstrate 1 other item. The Trim2Elec feature. Step 18: Click on Trim2Elec from the menu. The geometry from the part that surrounds the selected reference geometry but also contained within the inserted standard electrode is automatically trimmed to the standard electrode boundary. The resultant red geometry is the trimmed geometry that will be saved with the standard electrode. The following will the result. Isometric View Top View (Notice the trimmed surfaces are red)

Step 19: You can now click on Save to save the electrode. Notice that the trimmed geometry was only a set of duplicate surfaces and the original surfaces are still intact. You have now demonstrated the ease of isolating and inserting electrodes. We will now move on to viewing the electrodes done so far. Step 20: Click on Backup to take you back to the main Electrode Maker menu. From here, click on ElecDisplay. The following menu is presented.

From here, you can look at all the electrodes that have been isolated so far.

Step 21: Click anywhere on the geometry. Immediately all the reference geometries that were hidden will be displayed. The geometry will probably first disappear and then reappear with the reference geometries displayed (the reference geometries will be displayed in the result(magenta) color. This is a quick way to visualize the work done so far. You could also have clicked on Show Ref from the menu to get the same result.

You can now view all the inserted electrodes by clicking on the Show Elec in the menu, or click on any specific reference geometry that is in magenta color to see the corresponding electrode. We will do the latter. Step 22: Click on the first rib that is displayed in the magenta color.

Click on this surface.

The first electrode is immediately displayed. You do not have to click on Levels and the Level Manager to display the electrodes. This menu does it all! We will now create the Automatic surface extensions for this electrode towards the holder. Step 23: From the same ElecDisplay menu, click on AutoExtend. The following will be the result. Isometric View Side View

Explanation: You can explain that the electrode reference geometrys back surfaces are extended to the Dark Blue point that is the distance specified in the Job Setup for the Back Z extend from the lowest Z point. A flat surface is then created automatically to indicate the guard plane. Step 24: Click on Show Part to see the part in relations to the electrode while in the Side View. You will notice that the surface extensions clear the part and good for manufacturing the electrode. Electrode displayed in reference to the original part. Auto extended surfaces clear part

Having demonstrated the easy viewing and verification of the Electrode Display, you can move on to the next step, which is generating the HTML Report. The Job List can be optionally shown to display all the details of the electrode. Step 25: Click on Clear All, then Click on Show Part. The following should be displayed on the screen.

We will now show how easy it is to generate a HTML Report of the electrodes identified so far. This is a powerful and useful tool that will provide the Electrode Maker with both visual information as well as textual information for manufacturing the electrodes and reinserting them. Step 26: Click on HTML Report from the main Moldplus Electrode Maker menu. The following dialog is displayed. Without having to explain all the details, you can quickly explain

that all the electrodes identified are listed in the Electrode list option. We will automatically capture the images for all the electrodes for the specified Views, Top, Side and Isometric.

Step 27: Click on Moldplus will automatically capture all the electrode images for each electrode with Top, Side and Isometric Views. The Masterpiece will also be captured for the ISO view to show the electrode in relations to the whole part. The following should be the result of the display when all the images are captured. When the ELECT_1 is highlighted as shown, the corresponding images will be displayed.

Now we can move on to selecting all the text that will be displayed within the HTML Report.

Step 28: Click on the HTML Settings Tab. The following should be the display. All the items are checked on the list. The items can be reordered if desired and only selected items can be output if preferred.

Step 29: Leave the default settings and simply click on View HTML. The HTML Report will be presented with the following details. The information presented here is only for 1 electrode. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date, Time 02/19/2002 00:23:50 MC8 file of origin D:\MCAM8\MILL\MC8\MOLDPLUS_EXAMPLES_MM\0_ELEC_4.MC8 Job name Moldplus_Job_123 Job directory D:\Mcam8\Mill\MC8\Moldplus_Job_123\

Electrode Name ELECT_1 MC8 file of Origin D:\MCAM8\MILL\MC8\MOLDPLUS_EXAMPLES_MM\0_ELEC_4.MC8 Electrode Filename D:\Mcam8\Mill\MC8\Moldplus_Job_123\ELECT_1.mc8 Level in part file 20 Level Name S: ELECT_1 Machine Charmille Operation Rough_Heavy: Gap=0.0300 Rough_Light: Gap=0.0200 Finish_Heavy: Gap=0.0100 Finish_Light: Gap=0.0050

Minimum Electrode Dimensions X=117.2269 Standard Used FC9_124_70 Standard Dimensions X=124.0000 Electrode Type Flat Material Type Copper

Y=2.6531

Z=69.2555

Y=9.0000

Z=70.0000

A=90.0000

Electrode Lowest Z point 3.9624

Nominal Position X=117.8877 Comment Y=0.0000 Z=70.9624 A=90.0000

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The above is just an excerpt of the HTML report. Without doing any settings changes, you can easily generate and display the report. All the information relevant to the electrode is listed in the report. This concludes the HTML report demo. Click on Close to close the HTML Report dialog. We will now show the final part of the demo, which is preparing an electrode for machining. Step 30: Open the Moldplus_Job_123 folder and open the ELECT_2.MC8 file. The following electrode and geometry should be presented.

Notice that the electrode needs to be rotated and translated to origin for machining purposes. Step 31: From the ElectrodeMKR menu, click on Prep Elec. Click on OK to the prompt dialog. Click on Translate, Make sure the UseRedPt has the arrow pointing to it. This is the highest point of the electrode stock that you need to move to Z0. This is normally what lost electrode makers want to do.

Step 32: Click on To Origin. The following will be the result. Notice that the red point is now at 0,0,0. Then click on Rotate, By Origin, The right hand side will be the result.

Translate to Origin (Use RedPt)

Rotate By Origin

Step 33: Now switch to the Top View. Since this electrode was isolated and inserted with an angle fit, we need to rotate one of the edges back to 0 degrees. To do this, from the same Rotate menu, click on HrzAngle and select one of the edges to rotate to Horizontal or 0 degrees. The following will be the result.
Select this red edge for rotation to 0 degrees Electrode rotated back to 0 degrees

Real quick, we have translated and rotated and positioned the part for machining. The last thing left is the Ext2Cont option for this electrode. Step 34: Click on Iso View and from the Prep Elec menu, click on Ext2Cont. The following should be the result.

The electrode is now ready for machining! This concludes the Moldplus Demo! For any further details on the product, please refer to the on-line help or the soon to be completed Applications Guide. Any questions, comments or suggestions, please email support@moldplus.com